Carols in the Domain has become a free pre-Christmas annual Concert which features many popular national and international performers and guests. The concept was started in 1983 by Robyn Anne Hobbs OAM. See more details in Wikipedia
A Principal Sponsor has held naming rights for the event - currently (2024) being known as Woolworths Carols in the Domain.
The event is held in the Domain Gardens adjacent to the Sydney CBD, and each year the quite large stage and for many years the lightweight tensile structure covering canopy is erected.
The founding President of the then MSAA (now the LSAA) was largely responsible for developing the original PVC fabric canopy design concept.
Vinzenz Sedlak started with a lycra model at a scale of 1:100 and envisaged four masts located near each corner of the stage. Diagonal cross cables spanned between the opposite mast heads and a long front edge cable gave an uninterrupted view of the stage area.
The direct measurements from the model of the xyz coordinates of salient points (anchorages, mast tops and bases) was then fed into a form-finding program developed by Peter Kneen - also a founding member of LSAA. The following plots show the computer model.
The next step was to produce cutting patterns which were joined to form a 1:25 scale model.
The resultant PVC fabric structure (the fabric component has been replaced during the 40 year life) was fabricated by Bert Bilsborough. Bert was still keen on using both sewn and welded seams in the early 1980s but most PVC coated membranes from that time just used high frequency welding. George Clark developed much of the structural details of the supporting structure - masts, cables and anchorages.
Some images of the first structure erected in the domain follow:
With the advent of large screens and AV technology, the structures erected in recent times are removed from true tensile fabric architecture.
